On this blog you have the possibility to get known to the latest updates of Music Recording Software. To see the information about their pros and cons, to see video tutorials and to get links of free trial versions

Recently
I overlooked the posts on my blog and surprisingly discovered that I have not
posted about BFD 2 yet. I thought that this completely amazing music recording
software really deserves a post from me.

So what
is BFD 2: it is an acoustic drum production environment. Well you may have used
software like EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Native Instruments’ Abbey Road Drum
Studio etc. BFD 2 does the same as the softwares I mentioned above. However it
is my favourite one for its unprecedented power and flexibility, its sound
quality and extreme realism. Most of the Drum Production Environment Software
are user-friendly but they have much less features than BFD 2 and it is easier
for a software to be user-friendly if it has less features. I use BFD 2 as an
integrated plug-in with Ableton, however it may be used with any digital audio
workstation like Cubase, Sonar, Nuendo etc. At our Youtube channel you may see
some video tutorials and samples, so that you can see and hear what you can do
with BFD 2. Below I will write in more details about its possibilities.

BFD 2 comes
with 55 GB sample library recorded at famous Air Studios in London. The components
of drum kits have up to 96 levels of velocity layers. BFD 2 comes with several already
set-up ready to use drum kits, however you are able to set up 10, 18 or 32
piece kits using any available drum kit components.

BFD 2
comes with about 5000 stylistically different patterns. These are MIDI files
that are very likely to fit your needs and provide with the groove your musical
track needs. However BFD 2’s Groove Editing is just another great thing I love
in this software. BFD 2 lets you make your own grooves. It’s easy, editing and
creating is intuitive and you get realistic results. You can easily assign
velocity to just any MIDI tone, so that at the end you can’t tell whether it is
recorded live with the drummer playing real drum-kits or recorded with BFD 2.

Samples
at Air Studio have been recorded using different sets of mics. So BFD 2 lets
you control the recording fully just if you were recording it live. You may
choose to move your virtual recording mics close to the virtual drum-kit, move
away or hang them above it. If you are more professional you may go to a bit
more complicated mixing process and use BFD 2’s ability to let you mix each mic
channel individually. BFD 2’s built-in processors have flanger, ring mod, delay,
different kinds of filters and distortion and other effects to create even more
realistic drum tracks.

BFD 2’s
built-in mixer has many advantages and I may dare to say that it is better than
many expensive full-fledged sequencing hosts’ mixers. However Ableton, Cubase,
Sonar and Nuendo are not among such music recording software.

Native Instruments decided to make a holiday gift
for musicians and released SKANNER which is a free virtual synthesizer. Stephan
Schmitt is the creator of SKANNER. Those who do not already know, Stephan
Schmitt is the father of REAKTOR perhaps the most well-known and powerful
virtual synthesizer available. SKANNER, which is based on unique synthesis
architecture, can be used with the free REAKTOR 5 PLAYER. So that it is Really
Free.

I have just had my first touch with SKANNER. I’d
say it is wonderful especially for its price (0). Although there is quite
complicated synthesis mechanism built in the software, it is very convenient
and user-friendly, so that amateur musicians can use it as well as
professionals. In fact it has two interfaces: Panel A – which displays just
four macro controls so that you can control the synth easily by just being in
touch with those controls. It should be mentioned that each control is
interlinked with multiple internal parameters, so even a subtle tweak can have
great impact on the final sound you get. Panel B – is more complicated version
of the interface as it is for professionals – for those who want to dig deeper
into the SKANNER’s architecture. You can see this interface in details on the
picture. You can even use your own samples and get them Skanned.

In fact
SKANNER is a wonderful mix of a synthesizer and a sampler. It comes with two
oscillators which are used to scan (or SKAN) a sample. At higher frequencies
you get oscillators being shaped by the sample waveform as the dominant force
while at low frequencies you get scratch sound produced from the sample being
read back and forth. What you get are the sounds dirty and raw and highly
unpredictable.

Versatile Preset Morpher is another thing in
the creative arsenal of SKANNER. You can get unique and unusual sounds by morphing
between eight different snapshots. There are controls for LFO modulation and
speed of morphing.